Recently, Revlon have dumped their 12-hour eyeshadow line in favour of a bigger, better, badassier collection of quads that last sixteen – count them – sixteen hours. The quads come in a fairly boring range of shades, with one exception being the “Inspired” quad, which is a mix of greens and blues. I initially picked up “Inspired”, as I love me some greens and blues, but something told me to just hold the phone and try something different. I heard on the Internets that taupe is all the rage, so with that in mind, I picked up “Siren” instead, which is a mix of grays and a hearty taupe.

As soon as I saw these quads, I wondered just what they meant by 16 hours. Are they suggesting that the shadows themselves, with no primer or base, will stay in put that long? Or are they counting on the fact that people use primers? Because if it’s the former, colour me impressed. To really test their words, I applied the quad as directed by their handy dandy diagram on one eye with primer, and the other eye without primer. Jump below the cut for more.

APPLICATION AND WEAR

Application was smooth and easy over a primer, but took quite a bit of building without. Even then, the colours were dull and unimpressive without it. Blendability in both cases was very good, as these are very smooth, somewhat creamy shadows.

I managed to wear this for about fifteen hours before I finally had to nod off for sleep. Surprisingly enough, the shadow did last the entire fifteen test hours, with very minimal fading without a primer. There were faint lines of creasing after about three hours, but the creasing did not worsen thereafter. Had that amount of shadow not shifted, the application would have probably survived without fading for the entire wear-time. With a primer, there was no budging or fading whatsoever.

BRASS TACKS

All in all, I’m extremely impressed by this quad. It was well worth the price I paid (a very slim $2.50), and ounce for ounce, it’s even worth full retail ($7.49 for .16oz). For true colour, you’re definitely better off wearing a primer under these colours, however, this would be a nice quad to stash in your purse for those days when you need to do your “I’m Horribly, Horribly Late” makeup at your desk in the morning. I only these quads came in a better colour variety. Hopefully we’ll see an expansion of the line in coming seasons.